Audrey Hepburn (/dri hpbrn/; born Audrey Kathleen Ruston; 4 May 1929 20 January

1993) was a British actress andhumanitarian. Recognised as a film and fashion icon, Hepburn was
active during Hollywood's Golden Age. She was ranked by theAmerican Film Institute as the
third greatest female screen legend in the history of American cinema and has been placed in
theInternational Best Dressed List Hall of Fame. She is also regarded by some to be the most
naturally beautiful woman of all time.[1][2][3][4]
Born in Ixelles, a district of Brussels, Hepburn spent her childhood between Belgium, England and
the Netherlands, including German-occupied Arnhem during the Second World War. In Amsterdam,
she studied ballet with Sonia Gaskell before moving toLondon in 1948 to continue her ballet training
with Marie Rambert and perform as a chorus girl in West End musical theatre productions. She
spoke several languages including English, French, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, and German.[5]
After appearing in several British films and starring in the 1951 Broadway play Gigi, Hepburn played
the lead role in Roman Holiday(1953), for which she was the first actress to win an Academy Award,
a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award for a single performance. The same year, she won a Tony
Award for Best Lead Actress in a Play for Ondine. She went on to star in a number of successful
films, such as Sabrina (1954), The Nun's Story (1959), Breakfast at
Tiffany's (1961), Charade (1963), My Fair Lady (1964) and Wait Until Dark (1967), for which she
received Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations. Hepburn remains one of few
people who have won Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Awards. She won a record three BAFTA
Awards for Best British Actress in a Leading Role.
After the war ended in 1945, Ella and Audrey moved to Amsterdam, where Hepburn took ballet
lessons for three years with Sonia Gaskell, a leading figure in Dutch ballet.[35] In 1948, she appeared
for the first time on film, as an air stewardess in an educational travel film made by Charles van der
Linden and Henry Josephson, Dutch in Seven Lessons.[36] She moved to study at the Ballet Rambert;
supporting herself with part-time work as a model, and dropping "Ruston" from her surname. On
requesting Rambert's assessment of her prospects, Hepburn was told she had talent, but her height
and weak constitution (the after effect of wartime undernutrition) would make the status of prima
ballerina unattainable. She decided to concentrate on acting.[37][38][39]
On the evening of 20 January 1993, Hepburn died at home in her sleep of appendiceal cancer. After
her death, Gregory Peck went on camera and tearfully recited her favourite poem, "Unending Love"
by Rabindranath Tagore.[104]
Funeral services were held at the village church of Tolochenaz, Switzerland, on 24 January 1993.
Maurice Eindiguer, the same pastor who wed Hepburn and Mel Ferrer and baptised her son Sean in
1960, presided over her funeral while Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, of UNICEF, delivered a eulogy.
Many family members and friends attended the funeral, including her sons, partner Robert Wolders,
brother Ian Quarles van Ufford, ex-husbands Andrea Dotti and Mel Ferrer, Hubert de Givenchy,
executives of UNICEF, and fellow actors Alain Delon and Roger Moore.[105] Flower arrangements were
sent to the funeral by Gregory Peck, Elizabeth Taylor, and the Dutch royal family.[106] The same day
as her funeral, Hepburn was interred at the Tolochenaz Cemetery, a small cemetery that sits atop a
hill overlooking the village.
Hepburn's legacy as an actress and a personality has endured long after her death. The American
Film Institute named Hepburn third among theGreatest Female Stars of All Time. She stands as one
of few entertainers who have won Academy, Emmy, Grammy and Tony Awards. She won a record
three BAFTA Awards for Best British Actress in a Leading Role. In her last years, she remained a
visible presence in the film world. She received a tribute from the Film Society of Lincoln Center in
1991 and was a frequent presenter at the Academy Awards. She received the BAFTA Lifetime
Achievement Award in 1992. She was the recipient of numerous posthumous awards including the
1993 Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award and competitive Grammy and Emmy Awards. She has been
the subject of many biographies since her death and the 2000 dramatisation of her life titled The
Audrey Hepburn Story which starred Jennifer Love Hewitt and Emmy Rossum as the older and
younger Hepburn respectively.[109] The film concludes with footage of the real Audrey Hepburn, shot
during one of her final missions for UNICEFAlthough Hepburn enjoyed fashion, she did not place
much importance on it, preferring casual and comfortable clothes contrary to her image. [121] In

addition, she never considered herself attractive. She stated in a 1959 interview, "you can even say
that I hated myself at certain periods. I was too fat, or maybe too tall, or maybe just plain too ugly...
you can say my definiteness stems from underlying feelings of insecurity and inferiority. I couldn't
conquer these feelings by acting indecisive. I found the only way to get the better of them was by
adopting a forceful, concentrated drive."[122]
The "little black dress" from Breakfast at Tiffany's, designed by Givenchy, was sold at
a Christie's auction on 5 December 2006 for 467,200, almost seven times its 70,000 pre-sale
estimate. This was the highest price paid for a dress from a film, [123] until it was surpassed by the
$4.6 million paid in June 2011 for the Marilyn Monroe "subway dress" fromThe Seven Year Itch.
[124]
The proceeds went to the City of Joy Aid charity to aid underprivileged children in India. The
head of the charity said, "there are tears in my eyes. I am absolutely dumbfounded to believe that a
piece of cloth which belonged to such a magical actress will now enable me to buy bricks and
cement to put the most destitute children in the world into schools." [125] However, the dress
auctioned by Christie's was not the one that Hepburn wore in the film. [126] Of the two dresses that
Hepburn did wear, one is held in the Givenchy archives while the other is displayed in the Museum
of Costume in Madrid.[125] A subsequent London auction of Hepburn's film wardrobe in December
2009 raised 270,200, including 60,000 for the black Chantilly lace cocktail gown from How to
Steal a Million. Half the proceeds were donated to All Children in School, a joint venture of The
Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund and UNICEF.[127]
.